370 ECONOMICS OF FORESTRY. 



In 1708, the provincial assembly of New 

 Hampshire forbade the cutting of mast trees on 

 ungranted lands under a penalty of ^100, and 

 at that early time the province had a surveyor- 

 general of forests, appointed by royal authority, 

 for the purpose of preventing depredations upon 

 the timber. No doubt this early regard to the 

 timber supplies in the face of plenty came largely 

 through the momentum of education, suggested 

 by the usages and methods of the mother coun- 

 tries, where forest protection had already become 

 an established policy, and even forestry practices 

 existed. 



A century later, real want seems to have ap- 

 peared, or at least anticipation of it. For, in 1795, 

 the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, 

 and Manufactures published a report on the best 

 mode of preserving and increasing growth of tim- 

 bers, an outcome of an inquiry by circular letter 

 issued in 1791 ; and in 1804, the Massachusetts 

 Society for the Promotion of Agriculture offered 

 prizes for successful forest plantations ; while 

 the federal government, between the years 1799 

 and 1831, appropriated money for the purchase 

 and passed legislation for the protection of live- 

 oak timber, suitable for navy purposes, under 

 which acts it acquired some 250,000 acres in Ala- 

 bama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi, not 

 as a matter of general forest policy, but to secure 

 sufficient supplies of a special material, restricted 



